China sold only 7,000 electric automobiles in 2013

Sales Likely To Increase, As Total Sudsidies Can Now Total $19,500 In Some Cities

The goal of the plan is to have five million EVs on the roads by the end of 2020.

China is already the world's largest manufacturer of electric bicycles and electric tricycles, but no less than 13 automobile manufacturers in China offered 18 different models of electric automobiles in 2013.
Two years ago, on June 28, 2012 the China State Council passed the New Energy Automobile Industry Development Plan for 2012 to 2020. The goal of the plan? To have 500,000 electric vehicles on the road by the end of 2015 and five-million electric vehicles on the roads by the end of 2020. Yet in 2013, Chinese automobile manufacturers sold just 6,900 highway-speed electric passenger automobiles and 1,247 plug-in hybrid automobiles. (We've got detailed lists available below). This number doesn't include electric buses, which will play a big role in electric vehicle growth in China, but if sales numbers for passenger automobiles continue in this manner, China's 2015 half-million EV goal will be very difficult to achieve.

For eight-and-a-half months during 2013, there were no national subsidies to promote electric vehicle sales in China, so on some level, China's 2013 sales are not that bad, considering. On September 13, 2013 China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MII) announced substantial government subsidies to spur the sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles in China. The new government subsidies are based on vehicle range and are only available to domestic automobile brands.

EV Range over 250 kilometers CN¥60,000 ($9,456 US)

EV Range between 150 km and 250 km CN¥50,000 ($8,130)

EV Range between 80 km and 150 km CN¥35,000 ($5,691)

PHEV Range over 50 km CN¥35,000 ($5,691)

China is one of the few countries in the world which continues to rely on central government planning to regulate industrial growth, and promotions of government officials are directly tied to performance based on those plans. According to the MII's announcement, major cities should implement policies to put 10,000 electric vehicles on the road by the end 2015, while other cities in the program should put more than 5,000 EVs on the road. By the end of 2013, forty cities had signed up for this program. Promotion opportunities for government officials who miss these targets will be very limited.

To make sure they meet their goals, many cities around China have implemented local incentives in addition to the national subsidies to promote electric vehicles in their cities:

Those numbers are all added to the national subsidy. Why have these cities been so quick to offer follow-on subsidies? Because they are all home to major automobile manufacturers: their local manufacturers stand to benefit handsomely from the government subsidies. So China's MII tacked on a requirement that at least 30 percent of EV sales in any city must comprise automobile brands manufactured in other cities. By contrast, foreign EVs – like, say, Tesla – get zero central government subsidies.

Foreign EVs get zero central government subsidies.

At the end of the day, a consumer in China can get a subsidy valued up to $19,500 toward the purchase of their brand-new electric vehicle. That's not a tax deduction available only to the rich, that's a cash discount off the standard retail price available to anybody.

Who is the largest electric automobile manufacturer in China? No, it's not BYD. It's JAC. Jianghuai Automobile Company based in Hefei, Anhui province is already on their fifth-generation EV set to launch later this year. JAC electric vehicles sell for as little as $12,000 after government subsidies. Last year, JAC sold 2,693 of their Gen 3 and Gen 4 EVs combined. That's not not quite as much as Tesla in 2013, but it is more than Tesla in 2012.

How are EV sales looking across China? Well, sales figures for electric vehicle sales in China are particularly hard to come by, because the industry is just starting to blossom. So we did some digging, and you can see the results below. The numbers came directly from the manufacturers, often from the CEO directly. They don't match the Chinese EV sales numbers found on sites like China Auto Web because those numbers include all electric vehicles, which includes buses. The numbers here include only passenger cars.

It will be most interesting to compare these to the numbers at the end of 2014.

Charlie Paglee is the CEO of Brannan Auto, an American automotive component engineering and manufacturing company focused on China, specifically on the electric vehicle industry. Mr. Paglee has more than two decades of business experience in China and speaks fluent Chinese Mandarin. Mr. Paglee is an electrical engineer who started working with electric vehicles in 1991. Mr. Paglee was the Vice President of China for Fisker Automotive and prior to that, he was Employee Number 5 at Aptera Motors.

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And that may contribute to why EV cars don't sell. They associate electric powered with small wimpy vehicles. The same way a lot of American idiots associate EVs with wimpy 'golf carts'. Never mind the fact that Diesel-Electric locomotives use electric motors as the traction motors because they are more powerful than the diesel engines which are used to create electricity for the electric motors.

I'd probably blame the glamorization of gas powered luxury cars in Europe and America. There's simply too much emphasis on gas propelled cars. In a region with so many up and coming wealthy citizens it's no surprise they would prefer luxurious western hemisphere-inspired vehicles.

Only a small percentage of people act without being primarily influenced by nonrational input. Call it brainwash, or call it the breed in tendency of people to be followers and want to comply with broader social norms. Very few people are really free to make their own decisions, they could be, but they are not. They simply don't want to be responsible for the outcomes, so they choose to believe in imaginary reality.

What most Western media and Sino-observers, fail to understand is that although the China State Council may have passed the New Energy Automobile Industry Development Plan for 2012 to 2020, such edicts are open to the interpretation of officials, who see such programs, more as a desirable concepts, than actual edicts and directives. (A "suggestion" by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, will be taken far more seriously, that a directive by the Secretary-General of the China State Council ! ) Most of these ambitious plans are announced largely for Western consumption, and are little more than hopeful propaganda. The PRC still subsidies the pump price of gasoline. In a nation where massive, week long gridlocks can occur in freezing temperatures, electric vehicles experience problems. Most PRC citizens still live in massive apartment blocks, with no facilities for charging etc. Despite concerns over smog, pollution and government restrictions, the citizens of the PRC want to buy a gasoline powered vehicle.

"massive week long gridlocks" I think you mean "massive week-long grid outages" or brown-outs. I think your analysis explains a lot, but I would think the staggering size of the Chinese market would lead to more car sales. There must be millions of Chinese families with a garage, short commutes, and more than one car. I wonder what the Chinese equivalent of AutoblogGreen is like: does it has shills for CNOOC, reactionaries in love with their gas-engined cars, people advocating NEVs (golf carts) for urban trips, etc.?

@ skierpage "massive week long gridlocks" I think you mean "massive week-long grid outages" or brown-outs." Actually, both are correct ! The PRC often experiences traffic jams that take several days, even weeks to clear. There's a whole unofficial industry that's sprung up catering to supplying traffic jam drivers with everything from food to washing facilities, even car minding, all supplied by bicycles or small scooters. Although the media is less controlled than yesteryear, the PRC still has official censorship, and practices a sort of voluntary self-censorship. Genuine criticism is discouraged. The major PRC oil companies, are headed by officials of both the CCP and the PLA (which is an organ of the CCP. ) . The PRC sees oil and coal as strategic assets and supports heavy domestic price subsidies, particular for gasoline and diesel. The PRC also supports it's oil companies abroad, in fact, like most PRC enterprises, they're seen as instruments of government, or party policy. However, the PRC is not the monolith of past era's. Fierce factions and rivalries have split the PRC government, and party, into different factions, representing different interests and a Byzantine labyrinth of constantly shifting power alliances exists. To the world, and the vast majority of it's citizens, the PRC leadership seems united and even progressive, and in some ways that's true, especially in business affairs, but fundamentally it's the same old dragon, just with better manners, and better propaganda. The CCP allows some criticism, and even manufactures some, in an attempt to encourage a belief that the PRC is more progressive, and by this method is able to stifle any real criticism of important sensitive issues.

There is some stigma associated with EVs in China. And in such a status conscious country, that can really hurt. Perhaps it is the fact that so many of them previously rode electric bicycles and now they want a "real" (read ICE-powered) car.

What about the infrastructure? The only way EV's will grow besides the subsidies and incentives and price coming down is people need ways to charge them as easily as it is to drive to the gas station and get gas. Yeah Tesla has the right idea but lets be honest here, it's going to take a long time before we see a huge network of charging stations globally. It seems like everyone wants people to switch to EV's but if you don't give people easy options to sustain them they won't switch. It's not as utopian as the EV ads make it seem, not initially. It's like the early days of car ownership something for the wealthy and people in nice houses. EV's have a long way to go, whether in China or here.

A rwo-car family with a parking space with a plug doesn't need charging infrastructure, and that is not the definition of wealthy in the West. Getting in a fully-charged car every morning is *MORE* convenient than driving to a gas station. I don't know how many Chinese families are in that category.

The are addressing it. There is some new mandate requiring 18% of parking spaces in all new residential areas to have charging. I think rules should say that 100% of new parking spaces be pre-wired for charging but not actually require the chargers. Have the chargers be added extremely easily when desired.